June 2010

June 26, 2010

Fabricio Werdum pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history in beating Fedor Emelianenko with a perfect triangle choke. Fedor tapped after the choke was on tight for quite some time.

Emelianenko knocked Werdum to the matt quickly with a number of shots, but Werdum wasn't hurt and stayed alert while Fedor tried to ground and pound with frankly sloppy punches. As Fedor tried to finish the fight quickly, Werdum got his legs in position and Fedor made a very basic mistake against a BJJ practitioner. He was too focused on his offense and ignored defense completely, as he said in the post-fight interview. Fedor's noted sloppiness finally did him in, as he made a mistake that plagues many beginning MMA fighters—getting caught in the triangle.

The fight was reminiscent of long-ago MMA matchups when jiu-jitsu
competitors took fighters of other styles by surprise—in particular, the
UFC 4 bout where Royce Gracie beat Dan Severn with the same triangle
choke (which some call a triangle armbar because in this case the arm position is crucial, though the key feature is compression of the neck, thus making the term choke more descriptive). That fight lasted a lot longer, well over 10 minutes, in contrast
to this rather quick bout.

The Werdum win throws off Strikeforce's plans for an Emelianenko-Overeem matchup for the title. Werdum says he'd like to rematch Fedor instead of fight for the title. The loss is only Fedor's 2nd, and is really the first time he has clearly been bested. The first time he lost was due to a cut, against Tsuyosha Kohsaka. Fedor's record falls to 32-2, while Werdum's is now 14-4-1.

Did Fedor look past Werdum to Overeem and the Strikeforce title? Perhaps Werdum's rather pedestrian record of accomplishments wasn't sufficient to make Fedor believe Werdum posed a threat. He may have been focused on avenging his brother Aleksander's loss to Werdum, as evidenced by his seeming desire to end the fight quickly and with punches. Some will say that Fedor has slipped and his days of dominance are over.

Another possibility, however, is that Werdum trained well and truly has announced his emergence as one of the great heavyweights in MMA today.

Fluke, or not? That is what MMA fans will be debating in the aftermath of the upset.

The main event features #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist who previously defeated Fedor's brother Aleksander. The winner will take on current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.

In other fights, women's champ Cyborg Santos defends her middleweight title, and Cung Le gets a chance for revenge against Scott Smith, who scored a last-second upset KO over Le in a fight that Le dominated start to finish.

Undercard fights

Pat Healy vs. Josh Thompson - lightweight bout (155)

Round 1 - Great grappling; Thompson had an armbar and triangle nearly locked in but not quite. Healy came back with a supplex. Close round, Thompson 10-9 due to getting close on subs. 10-9

Round 2 - Some striking by Thompson, Healy takes him down but gets a kick in the face. Healy controlling him on top for several minutes, gets in some good strikes. Good elbows to thighs by Thompson, and nearly has a couple of armbars but Healy clearly wins the round. 19-19.

Round 3 - Thompson may need a submission to win the fight, since the first round was close. More striking in the first minute, Thompson a bit better. Healy traps him and eventually takes him down, but Thompson reverses with 2 minutes left. After a LONG choke Healy taps, getting the submission he needed to avoid needing what might have been a controversial hometown decision.

Round 1 - Quick exchanges, backed up to the fence. Cyborg hitting hard, lands a knee to the face. To her credit Finney holds on. Cyborg lands a huge shot and Finney holds on for dear life. Cyborg in full control, but hits multiple shots to the back of Finney's head and gets a point deducted, which is completely fair. Finney still has fight left in her but is being overwhelmed. Takes a million shots but survived a clear 10-8 round, made 9-8 due to the deduction.

Round 2 - Good opening shot by Finney. More ground and pound by Cyborg. Amazing that Finney is still defending. Fighters stood back up. Finney finally dropped for good by a knee and the fight is stopped. Amazing effort by Finney, though, showing incredible courage in a fight she was losing from the start.

Scott Smith vs. Cung Le - middleweight bout (185)

Round 1 -Smith rushed Le, chasing him back and into the fence. Back to the center; Smith still agressive. Le counterpunching well. Good combo by Le hurts Smith, who goes for a takedown that Le stops. Le pounding Smith's midsection; Smith stands it up against the fence. Le delivers good shot, and head kick, and has Smith down to end the round. Le 10-9.

Round 2 - Smith agressive again. Le good with his kicks to the head; spinning kick stuns Smith, who crumples to the matt. Le pound on his back, but Smith gets up. Back to center.Another spinning kick drops Smith, some pounding and the fight is stopped! Le avenges his only loss in excellent, crowd-pleasing fashion at 1:46.

June 05, 2010

Despite two fights involving top 5 boxers, the top 20 in the SportsRatings Heavyweight Boxing Top 100 had very little change. #5 Ruslan Chagaev moved into a virtual tie with #4 David Haye; the latter is ahead by less than 1/100th of a point. #20 Albert Sosnowski fell to #54 after his loss to #2 Vitali Klitschko. Other than that there was no movement last month. The biggest gain was made by Derek Chisora (13-0), who entered the top 25 after a first round KO of former #99 Danny Williams.

Don't look for many big moves this month, either. The only top 20 fighters scheduled for action in June are #11 Tony Thompson, #15 Juan Gomez, and #16 Oleg Platov. Their opponents don't suggest much of a chance for upsets: though Gomez fights twice, #346 Rafael Zumbano is the tougher of his two foes. Tonight, Platov takes on the fading Gbenga Oloukun, who has lost 4 of 5 since beating Lamon Brewster last summer. Thompson has the only marginally interesting matchup, against #124 Friday Ahunanya. Ahunanya went the distance against #7 David Tua but lost badly, suggesting he has little hope against superior technician Thompson.

Fight of the month: McCall - Ibragimov?

In fact, the match of the month is probably #21 Oliver McCall against #38 Timur Ibragimov. A gutsy fight for both, and arranged rather quickly as McCall searched for a June 15 opponent. McCall is 45 and needs to move quickly if he has any hope of getting another title shot; a win over Ibragimov would move him near or into our top 15, and likely give him a universal top 25 consideration.

Ibragimov, too, would move into the top 20 with a win. He has lost only to Calvin Brock (undefeated at the time) and Tony Thompson; he also has an earlier draw with Kevin Johnson in Johnson's 3rd fight. All three later had title fights. Ibragimov is very durable and has never been stopped.

In terms of recent opponents, McCall has the slight edge, beating #137 Franklin Lawrence, #239 John Hopoate, and #254 Lance Whitaker since his loss to Juan Gomez three years ago, while Hoffman has topped #203 Alfred Cole, #216 Timo Hoffman, and #324 Andrew Greeley among his six recent wins. McCall knocked out Hopoate but all the other wins for both men went the distance and were unanimous.

Thirty-somethings to be active in June

The fighters ranking in the mid-30s are most active next month, with six of them in action.

34

35

YAKUP SAGLAM

13.99

2-0-0

June 5: #334 ANDREAS SIDON

35

36

NEVEN PAJKIC

13.91

2-0-0

June 30: #103 GRZEGORZ KIELSA

36

37

JOSH HARRIS

13.46

1-0-0

39

38

TIMUR IBRAGIMOV

13.33

6-2-0

June 15: #21 OLIVER MCCALL

37

39

HASIM RAHMAN

13.23

17-7-2

June 19: #133 SHANNON MILLER

38

40

MARIUSZ WACH

13.20

4-0-0

June 19: TBA

43

41

LENROY THOMAS

12.98

5-0-0

June 4: #301 JOSEPH RABOTTE

In addition to Ibragimov's bout, #36 Neven Pajkic's rematch with #103 Grzegorz Kielsa will tell us a bit about which fighter is more "for real"; Pajkic is 12-0, Kielsa 11-1. Does #39 Hasim Rahman have anything left in the tank? Not if he loses to Shannon Miller on June 19. The other fights are inconsequential unless a major upset happens. [note: Saglam faced unranked Marcel Zeller in lieu of Sidon on the 5th]

Dallas enters top 100 ahead of Fury; Price debuts at #44

The most movement in the top 100 happened in the 50s range:

46

52

JOHNATHON BANKS

12.03

3-0-1

Draw 12 #88 JASON GAVERN

53

53

SINAN SAMIL SAM

12.02

12-4-0

inactive 22 months.

55

54

JUSTIN
WHITEHEAD

11.95

1-0-0

20

55

ALBERT
SOSNOWSKI

11.86

10-2-1

L KO 10 #2 VITALI KLITSCHKO

54

56

TYE FIELDS

11.84

11-2-0

inactive 23 months.

69

57

SERGEI
LYAKHOVICH

11.79

10-3-0

KO 9 #148 EVANS QUINN

64

58

SETH MITCHELL

11.79

3-0-0

TKO 2 #180 JOHNNIE WHITE

56

59

SHANNON BRIGGS

11.74

19-5-1

TKO 1 #282 ROB CALLOWAY

57

60

GREGORY TONY

11.70

2-0-0

58

61

ANDREY RUDENKO

11.55

2-0-0

new

62

TOM DALLAS

11.22

1-0-0

KO 1 #152 LEE SWABY

Johnathon Banks' draw with Jason Gavern dropped him 5 spots (and moved Gavern up 17), while Sosnowski took a tumble after his loss to #2 Klitschko. Sergei Lyakhovich jumped to #56 with his first rated win in over two years; Seth Mitchell moved to 17-0 in just 2 1/2 years as a pro, beating Johnnie White. And while Shannon Briggs posted two first-round KO wins this month, he actually slips back a couple of spots as the others jump over him; neither of his opponents gave him much juice in the ratings.

One of the many young up-and-coming British fighters, Tom Dallas, makes his debut in the top 100 after beating journeyman Lee Swaby. At #61, Dallas is alread ahead of the oft-hyped Tyson Fury, another very young, very tall, undefeated British fighter. Ironically Fury beat Swaby previously, but at the time Swaby wasn't rated in the system, and Dallas' one win outranks Fury's two other rated wins. While Fury needed a full four rounds to stop Swaby, Dallas did it in the first round. Time will tell which one of these big men has more potential; both are 10-0 so far. Fury's twice-postponed rematch with John McDermott is on for June 25th.

At #44, yet another big man, 6-7" Kelvin Price (7-0), makes his debut after outpointing previously undefeated Tor Hamer. Price, 34, a former basketball player, also beat Julius Long late last year, though that win did not put Price "on the map" as far as the ratings are concerned as Long was unrated due to excessive losses. Price is coached by Roy Jones, Sr.